Tuesday, 27 July 2010

When sorting out my stamps, I found this little one I bought months ago and never used :o After rooting through a lot of my stuff, I think that instead of buying any more, I better start using what I have already......

Sunday, 25 July 2010

It's been ages since I followed a sketch from the Clean & Simple Stamping blog, so here is this week's lovely sketch FTL100

I can't remember the name of this little stamp but she reminds me so much of Phoebe. She's always dressing up (when she's not messing in the craft room!) sometimes doing both at the same time :p

This card was very quick to make because I had the image coloured and cut out earlier in the week. My lovely husband bought me Copic Markers for our 15th Wedding Anniversary a couple of weeks ago and I've just got around to playing with them now. I really love them though, they are so easy to use :) Don't look too closely at the coloured image.....it's hard to keep inside the lines! The sentiment is Doodlebug clear stamps.

Saturday, 24 July 2010

This is another of the covered photo albums for a baby girl. I absolutely love the My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary collection of papers. They are excellent quality for covering these albums. At the end of the post I have a picture of the album before it was covered. The name 'Hannah' was cut from chipboard using the Cuttlebug and the 'Olivia' dies and inked with rose red versacolor ink. The butterfly, hearts and swirl are all chipboard, cut with Sizzix dies.

The flower is cut using a Cuttlebug die (I can't remember which one) and I cut it out with patterned paper, again with pink shimmer card and lastly with green card. I replaced the inner petals with the pink shimmer card and the centre with green. The hearts were inked with versacolor rose red ink and covered with glossy accents. While that was wet I spinkled them lightly with DecoArt glamour dust.

For the butterfly I covered chipboard with the stripe paper and cut it out with a Sizzix die. Then cut it again with pink shimmer card. I cut out just the body of the pink shimmer butterfly and glued it on top of the stripe butterfly. I doodled some hearts and dots on it with permanent black pen.

This is the album I started with. I just took it all apart, covered it inside and out and then glued it back together again. Hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by today :)

Sunday, 18 July 2010

This little gift bag is a smaller version of the one I posted yesterday. The finished size is 18cms wide, 11cms tall and 8cms deep. The stamps ~ flower, bird and word are all Unity and the inks are Versacolor pigment ~ fresh green and amethyst. I cut the tag using the Quickcutz tag die. The purple gems are Papermania and the handles of the bag are white raffia.

The Inside of the bag

When I make these bags, depending on the weight of the gift to go inside, I put a matching piece of card or paper along the bottom for added strength and to cover the joins. The bottom of this bag was covered with amethyst paper as the gifts to go inside are very light.

Saturday, 17 July 2010

There seems to be a baby boom all of a sudden! I have 4 baby gifts to make, 2 for girls and 2 for boys. I like to give personalised altered photo albums so I'll be posting a few over the next couple of days!

Baby Girl Card

The little giraffeis made by Woodware and is stamped using pink paint, then cut out and raised on foam pads. The glitter detail around the edge of the circle and on the giraffe is stardust Stickles glitter glue. The dots are White Opal liquid pearls.

Altered Photo Album

The chipboard letters are cut with Sizzix alphabet dies ~ Slim, and painted with Anita's baby pink paint. I cut a piece of vellum with a Labels 4 Nestablilities die and painted the edges with pink. I then glued the letters to the vellum and attached it all to the album by putting tiny dots of glue behind the letters so when it is stuck on, you can't see the glue through the vellum.

The swirls are cut with a Marianne Creatables die (which my lovely friend Meryl sent home with Mum & Dad from Australia) I love these little dies ~ you can cut and emboss with them at the same time. The flowers are Green Tara and I edged them with stardust stickles.

Gift Bag

The bag is made from 2 sheets of A4 cardstock. After scoring the card, I stamped (Unity) flowers all along the bottom edge using grass green & opera pink versacolor inks. The giraffe is stamped with the pink ink on spare card and cut out before gluing to the front of the bag. The butterfly (Unity again!) is stamped twice on spare card in the two inks and cut out. The green butterfly is glued flat on the bag and the pink one is glued along the centre only and the wings lifted up. Detail is added with white opal liquid pearls. The tag is made by cutting a circle in spare card edging it with pink ink and stamping using Studio G baby stamps.

Centre of the Flowers ~ Liquid Pearls

TIP: If you don't like the little peaks left when using liquid pearls, if you gently flick the underside of the card with your finger the peaks should disappear!!

Milk Carton Box

I used an empty carton to make a template for this box. The carton I had was too short so I adjusted the measurements to fit a 12"x12" page. After scoring it, I used a nestabilities labels 8 die to draw around and cut it out with a craft knife (the page was too big to fit in the cuttlebug). I cut the frame using 2 dies and glued it to the front. I cut a piece of acetate with a larger die in the set and taped it behind the frame. Then I stamped the flowers around the bottom the same as the bag and also the butterfly and giraffe.

With this giraffe I cut off the stamped mane and added some fibres to add texture :) I also added glossy accents to all his spots but it doesn't show in the photo.

The Complete Set

Thank you for taking the time to stop by today. I didn't intend for it to be such a long post!!

If you'd like the dimensons of the bag or box, just email me and I'll be happy to send them to you :)

Sunday, 11 July 2010

Hello again!I have been so bad at updating this blog :( Mum and Dad came home from Australia last week, their cases bulging with craft goodies for me. So I haven't been crafting much.....just drooling over it all before tidying it away ~ lol.

What I have made though is this wedding card. I love Messy Rabbit stamps and coloured this pair in with Distress Inks. I did all the stitching by hand using the Tim Holtz clear ruler to pierce the holes first. The line along the bottom is a bit wonky where the ruler slipped and I didn't notice until it was too late....oops! The doily lace edge around the circle was made using the Martha Stewart doily lace edger punch (I saw a tutorial on how to do it ages ago but can't remember whose it was - sorry!) The flowers were embellished with liquid pearls and the leaves with stickles glitter glue.

Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for visiting :)Sarah x

Edited to addThe card was too raised to fit in a regular envelope so I made a little box to put it in. I usually just print an insert for inside my cards but this time as it was going in a box I decorated the inside too. The heart at the top is stitched (using a papermania template) and the flowers & leaves on the bottom corner are all punched.